1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lithographic projection apparatus, a device manufacturing method and a device manufactured thereby.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term “patterning device” as here employed should be broadly interpreted as referring to device that can be used to endow an incoming radiation beam with a patterned cross-section, corresponding to a pattern that is to be created in a target portion of the substrate. The term “light valve” can also be used in this context. Generally, the pattern will correspond to a particular functional layer in a device being created in the target portion, such as an integrated circuit or other device (see below). An example of such a patterning device is a mask. The concept of a mask is well known in lithography, and it includes mask types such as binary, alternating phase-shift, and attenuated phase-shift, as well as various hybrid mask types. Placement of such a mask in the radiation beam causes selective transmission (in the case of a transmissive mask) or reflection (in the case of a reflective mask) of the radiation impinging on the mask, according to the pattern on the mask. In the case of a mask, the support will generally be a mask table, which ensures that the mask can be held at a desired position in the incoming radiation beam, and that it can be moved relative to the beam if so desired.
Another example of a patterning device is a programmable mirror array. One example of such an array is a matrix-addressable surface having a viscoelastic control layer and a reflective surface. The basic principle behind such an apparatus is that, for example, addressed areas of the reflective surface reflect incident light as diffracted light, whereas unaddressed areas reflect incident light as undiffracted light. Using an appropriate filter, the undiffracted light can be filtered out of the reflected beam, leaving only the diffracted light behind. In this manner, the beam becomes patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable surface. An alternative embodiment of a programmable mirror array employs a matrix arrangement of tiny mirrors, each of which can be individually tilted about an axis by applying a suitable localized electric field, or by employing piezoelectric actuators. Once again, the mirrors are matrix-addressable, such that addressed mirrors will reflect an incoming radiation beam in a different direction to unaddressed mirrors. In this manner, the reflected beam is patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable mirrors. The required matrix addressing can be performed using suitable electronics. In both of the situations described hereabove, the patterning device can comprise one or more programmable mirror arrays. More information on mirror arrays as here referred to can be seen, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,891 and 5,523,193, and PCT publications WO 98/38597 and WO 98/33096. In the case of a programmable mirror array, the support may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
Another example of a patterning device is a programmable LCD array. An example of such a construction is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,872. As above, the support in this case may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
For purposes of simplicity, the rest of this text may, at certain locations, specifically direct itself to examples involving a mask and mask table. However, the general principles discussed in such instances should be seen in the broader context of the patterning device as hereabove set forth.
Lithographic projection apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC's). In such a case, the patterning device may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In current apparatus, employing patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion at once. Such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus, commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the radiation beam in a given reference direction (the “scanning” direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. Since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally <1), the speed V ax which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be seen, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,791.
In a known manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a pattern (e.g. in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. It is important to ensure that the overlay (juxtaposition) of the various stacked layers is as accurate as possible. For this purpose, a small reference mark is provided at one or more positions on the wafer, thus defining the origin of a coordinate system on the wafer. Using optical and electronic devices in combination with the substrate holder positioning device (referred to hereinafter as “alignment system”), this mark can then be relocated each time a new layer has to be juxtaposed on an existing layer, and can be used as an alignment reference. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book “Microchip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processing”, Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the “lens.” However, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a “lens”. Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such “multiple stage” devices the additional tables may be used in parallel or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Dual stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,969,441 and 6,262,796.
In lithography, it has become important to project smaller features or lines of a pattern on the patterning device onto the substrate. One way to reduce the size of the features is to use radiation having shorter wavelengths than currently available on commercially available lithographic apparatus. Another way to reduce the feature size is to employ extension technology such as multiple exposure in combination with, for example, dipole illumination. By using dipole illumination, only features in a specific orientation are projected onto the substrate with an accuracy that is relatively greater compared to the accuracy obtained using conventional illumination modes like for example, annular or quadrupole.
As exposure with dipole illumination generally leads to smaller features only in one orientation, the pattern of the patterning device must be split up into two patterns. Generally these patterns are put on two patterning devices, whereby a first patterning device only includes features in a first direction, e.g. a horizontal direction, and a second patterning device includes features extending in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction, e.g. a vertical direction. Both horizontal and vertical directions reside in the plane of the pattern. By first projecting the horizontal features and subsequently projecting the vertical features, the overall feature size will be smaller compared to an exposure of the entire pattern (including horizontal and vertical features) with conventional illumination modes like annular or quadrupole illumination, for example.
In between exposing the first and the second patterns, the first and second patterning devices must be exchanged, which consumes time and reduces throughput. In order to decrease throughput reduction, it is generally preferred to expose a whole batch (comprising two or more substrates) with the first patterning device and then expose the same batch with the second patterning device. The advantage is that the first and second patterning device only need exchanging twice per entire batch. Hence, these two exchanges are shared by the whole batch of substrates.
Another method is to expose a first substrate with the first patterning device and subsequently expose the same substrate with the second patterning device before exposing a second substrate. In such case, the patterning devices are exchanged twice for each substrate which, of course, results in throughput loss relative to exchanging patterning devices twice per entire batch. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,022, it is proposed to put two masks on one mask table, whereby the masks are arranged in line along a scan direction. The scan direction is the direction along which a pattern on a mask is scanned by the projection beam during exposure of a substrate. By using such an arrangement, each target portion on the entire substrate is exposed with the pattern on the first mask, and, subsequently, each target portion is exposed with the pattern on the second mask. As both the first and the second mask are situated on one mask table, exchange of a mask is performed much quicker compared to mask exchange with mask tables comprising only a single mask. Hence, the time needed to perform the mask exchange is reduced and throughput is gained.
In the above-presented methods for multiple exposure, the time between the first and the second exposure is relatively long as at least one entire substrate is exposed with the first patterning device before exposure proceeds with the second patterning device. Consequently, the temperature of the substrate may be different during exposure of the first and second patterning devices due to, for example, temperature variations in an environment surrounding the substrate, for example a surrounding gas or the substrate table. As temperature variations may causes expansion or contraction of the substrate, the position of the projected pattern of the second patterning device with respect to the projected pattern of the first patterning device on the substrate, also called overlay, may drift. The extent of drift can be defined by overlay accuracy. A large drift results in a low overlay accuracy and vice versa. Temperature variations of the substrate between exposure of the first and the second patterning devices may lead to a low overlay accuracy which is, of course, highly undesirable.